The Tarantula Nebula

The Tarantula Nebula is a massive star forming region in the dwarf galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). It can be seen in this image of the LMC (lower center), a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. It consists of extensive hydrogen gas clouds (HII regions) that provide the ingredients for star formation. It is the home of the most massive stars ever seen (NASA).

Image processed by Andrew Macica, original data from Telescope Live.

Imaging Details:

Observatory: Heaven's Mirror Observatory, Yass, Australia

Telescope: Takahashi FSQ-106ED

Aperture: 106 mm (4.17 inches), f/3.6

Focal Length: 382 mm (with 0.73x focal reducer)

Camera: FLI ProLine PL16803 CCD

Filters: LRGB

Total Exposure: 11 hours 0 minutes

Image Processing: PixInsight 1.8.9-3 Ripley (x64);

BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, StarXTerminator (RC Astro);

Adobe Photoshop 25.12.1;

Adobe Lightroom Classic 14.2

Instruction on PixInsight from Adam Block Studios.